Hallo from Switzerland again. Still can't believe I'm here, living right next to THE ALPS! It's so beautiful here.
Well, this past week was a pretty crazy one! We got Sister Jones all ready and shipped off to Stuttgart, and then I picked up my new companion, Sister Multamäki. She's been on her mission about 6 months and she already spoke German before she came here, so it's gonna be a good transfer! I know I say this a lot, but this week we were REALLY running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Just basically sprinting from one appointment to another, and trying not to get lost because I've only been in this area tor 3 weeks. Since we're both super new, we have been trying to get to know the members, and call less actives, and figure out our way around this area...haha. It's gonna be an adventure!
Some highlights from this week:
Karyna isn't able to get baptized this coming Saturday because the church won't be available, and she said she doesn't feel quite ready yet so we are pushing it back a week. But we met with her a couple times during the week, and went to a volleyball game with her and her kids! We made her some soup for lunch one day, and we thought we would just put it in a big plastic bowl and cover it with tinfoil and carry it over. Well the bowl was a super awkward size, and water mixed with vegetables is actually super heavy when you have a 25 minute walk, and tinfoil definitely does not make big, awkward bowls spill-proof. So 40 minutes later we arrived at Karyna's to bear our gift of a mildly-cold bowl of soup that used to be about 1/4 more full, some really tired arms and a couple of scarves that now permanently smell like chicken bouillon. But the smile on her face made it worth it. :)
We also found a new investigator! We met with a lady in our Ward who suggested one of her friends to us! We decided that the three of us would go over together and give him a Book of Mormon and invite him to church. Well we went over and ended up having like a two hour appointment with him! He is from Africa and only speaks French, so we did a lot of translating through Emi, but he was so touched by the Christmas video and the words we shared about the Book of Mormon. We gave him his own copy in French and he said, "I know with all my heart that the words you are telling me are true and that they are the words of God." Well, if that doesn't make your heart burst with joy, I don't know what does!! He made us some yummy African food, and then I played the piano while we sang some Christmas songs! It was so great, and we have another appointment with him this week!
On Sunday we went to an older couple's house after church for lunch, and before we left I asked if they knew anyone nearby, so we could stop by and say hi for them! They told us the name of an Italian family across the street, and gave us a giant gingerbread house to give them as a gift. We went right over, and it worked! The family was so surprised and so happy, and they invited us in right then for "a coffee? Or Snaps? Or an Espresso? How about Tea?" We told them that actually we had just barely eaten a lot of food, so water would be just great! Then they showed us all the family picture albums they owned, and we shared the Christmas video with them. We are planning to go back soon and give them an Italian Book of Mormon. They were so nice! And that is the first time I've been invited into someone's house when dooring! Members: give gingerbread houses to the missionaries. It works!
Well, that's all I have for today, getting back into writing detailed emails takes forever. But I just wanted to quickly share a story from my personal studies this week. So in our apartment, our desks for studying are pushed together and facing each other in our living room. One day my companion was eating breakfast during personal study and it was bothering me SO MUCH. I couldn't focus, and then I was just getting annoyed, and it sounded more and more like an animal the longer I sat there waiting for her to be done chewing. So I decided to stop reading in the Book of Mormon, and maybe try reading in the New Testament to see if I could concentrate better there. We have been reading the New Testament as a mission the past couple months, and I flipped open to where I had left off, Romans 14. Literally the 3rd verse I read said, "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him." OKAY HEAVENLY FATHER I GET IT. SORRY. Gotta appreciate those little slaps in the face from Him sometimes. So then I forgot about the chewing and continued learning from the word of God.
I hope you all have a great week! Bis nächste Woche.
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Thunell
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